


is this a win

by litra



Series: Episode snippets [9]
Category: For the People (TV 2018)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Character Development, Character Study, Crushes, Episode Related, Episode: s01e08 Flippity-Flop, F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-29 23:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17817800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litra
Summary: It's a win, but it doesn't feel like it.Jill realizes a few things after winning the Kirk Keener case.





	is this a win

Jill turned, looked at Roger and smiled. She had won. They had won. It felt good. She had gotten an innocent man off. And yes he was innocent. Not guiltless, he was after all, only human, as they all were, but not guilty of this crime. At some point Jill had realized the truth of that, and now she had proven it to the world. 

Roger didn't meet her eyes, he looked down at his papers. They were already neatly stacked. It only took one smooth practiced motion to tuck them into his briefcase and clip it shut. It could have been any of a thousand times they had stood across the isle from each other... except it wasn't anything like that.

His head was bent, his arms tight at his sides, his walk was deliberate, as if he was going to be late... and he hadn't met her eyes. 

Jill's smile faltered. 

She quickly pulled it back up when Kirk Keener offered his hand. It would be a hard road for him. She knew getting him off was just the first step. He was going to have to rebuild his whole life. Others in his position had moved across the country, or changed their names just to get away from the stigma, but that wasn't for her to contemplate. Jill had done her part. She had done her job, and she had done it well. This was a victory.

It didn't feel like a victory. 

Not because of Keener. Because of Roger. The thought about that all the way back to the office, leaving Sandra to finish up the final details with Leonard Knox. It seemed Roger had had the same idea.

When was the last time they had been so in tune? This wasn't supposed to happen. She'd told Sandra thouse weeks ago that he was the adversary not the enemy, but when had he gone from adversary to... friend? Confidant? Someone who she met outside of the office and baseball... Someone who sat across from her in diner booths upholstered in that strange red, not quite plastic.  Someone who smiled at her over the rim of his coffee cup and rattled off the ingredients to a denver omelet.

How did he know anyway? Had he made them before, for his family, for his wife? And why did she care? They had only ended up fighting about it two seconds later. That's all their relationship was in the end, a series of highly structured arguments... and baseball... and then the diner... and then this case...

She slumped at her desk, halfway through packing everything back into the discovery boxes. She wanted a drink, but the only thing in her office was that bottle of champagne. It wasn't the first time she'd thought of opening it, but it had never been a big enough win before. 

Well this was a pretty big win. Not only had she gotten them to press charges, she had taken them to court and won. Oh sure it wasn't how she thought it would go, the details anyway, but today was a good day. It should be a good day. For once Roger Gunn knew what she went through every time he picked up the phone and called her...

She put down the bottle, staring at a blank spot on the wall of her office. 

That wasn't right... She didn't feel that way about him. If she did, she wouldn't feel this way now. But it was more than that.

Now he knew: the sleepless nights, the struggle, the pain of trying everything, putting your money on the longshot because you had nothing else-- and loosing. 

He knew. 

She wondered if he was going to bed early now that the case was over or if, like her, he was back in his office doing busy work, because it was betting to be doing something then staring at a dark ceiling and listening to the traffic outside, or the neighbors arguing, or the all too heavy silence. She wondered if he was eating right. The first few years in this job she'd gained ten pounds from microwave meals.

She thought about omelets.

Jill had never had a Denver omelet, but she liked western omelets. 

But she'd been the one who said they shouldn't meet in the diner. Had that been a mistake?

Did she want it to be a mistake?

Did she want to sit down across from him and drink bad diner coffee that was probably still better than what she could find in her own break room? They ate hot dogs in the stands, why was this so different? Why was she making this different?

She looked down at the bottle of champagne again. She thought about victory, and defeat. She thought about baseball. Roger would like the story about the Red Sox. 

Jill took a breath, and admitted the truth. She had liked the diner. She liked him, and god was that a scary thought. Nothing would come of it. She was a professional, and she wasn't young anymore. She could handle a little crush without falling to pieces. That didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it before her heart realized it would never work.

It only took a moment to open her calendar and change the location of their next meeting. She tucked the champaign into her bag. She could already taste it on her tongue and it was the sweetest thing in the world.


End file.
